Last weekend was the 180th anniversary of Covent Garden’s famous market building. Like any proper birthday party, the celebrations kicked off with the unveiling of a card and cake – big enough to feed 2,000 people! At 12.30pm sharp, the GA team were there, queuing up for a slice and wishing many happy returns to the Covent Garden Market Building.
Take a look at our pics…
To celebrate the 180th anniversary of its famous Market Building, Covent Garden is marking the milestone with a diverse programme of free events that combine culture, art, history, fine food and good old-fashioned entertainment.
The festivities kick off this Friday with the unveiling of a massive birthday card and cake that will feed 2,000 people (no guessing where the GA staff will be at 12.30pm!)
Alongside foodie treats, there’ll be goodies for grown ups, art installations, ice sculptures, party games, workshops, entertainment and live music for all. For a full schedule of this weekend’s line up visit: www.coventgardenlondonuk.com
As you may know, GA’s offices overlook the garden of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, better known as the Actor’s Church. Every summer they transform their little green oasis into theatre and offer the blissfully disorientating experience of watching a play in the open air in the middle of London!
This year they will re-run their production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which is back following rave reviews last year. (GA cameos with Juliet longingly enquiring ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ from our window!)
The company will also be performing ‘Wind in the Willows’, which débuts this year. We have spied on a few of the rehearsals and it looks like a great production with a set that Ratty and Mole would be proud of.
This is one of London’s ‘hidden’ gems, and the perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening soaking up some culture and reminding yourself why our city is so fantastic!
Take a look at the Iris Theatre site if you fancy finding out more about the productions or want to book some tickets, we’ll see you there!
It’s great working in Covent Garden. The atmosphere is fervent, bustling, and there’s always something random going on. You literally never know what’s going to happen. Typical example of this – when I walked into work this morning, I could never have guessed that less than three hours later, I would be breaking a world record.
Yes, you heard right. Today, I broke a world record.
Don’t believe me, well here’s the proof:
So, as you can hopefully see from my great Nokia phone film footage, I broke a record for “the most amount of people in one place simultaneously flipping a coin”.
Nice.
And the point of this? Well, this PR stunt world record attempt was the brainchild of agency Taylor Herring to promote a new Channel Five series called Heads or Tails.
I think it was quite a nice idea, although I would have perhaps done more online to build buzz prior to the event. But anyway, I’m sure the ‘world record’ will provide a soft news story, and so this might make a few papers tomorrow, just in time for the show’s premiere on the weekend. On that note, I’m slightly regretting my proximity to Justin (watch vid of the photoshoot below!)
Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend the “140 Characters Conference” (#140conf) at the Indigo O2 in London, created and hosted by Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver on Twitter). If you can’t tell from the name, the conference was focused on Twitter (140 referring to the amount of characters that one is limited to for each Twitter update).
There was a really interesting mix of speakers, all of whom talked about how they use Twitter, what it means to them and how it has shaped the way in which they communicate. For example, Babs Rangaiah (@Babs26), VP of Global Comms Planning at Unilever, said that Twitter is the “best business tool”, and that Unilever now see it as “part of the job”. Kodak (@KodakCB) use Twitter to “engage, educate and excite” their audiences. Manny Norte (@MannyNorte), a Kiss 100 dj, says that he discovers new music and artists through Twitter, and Endemol (@jonalmond) are going so far as to create a Twitter app called “Tweemote”. So, suffice to say, some pretty big companies and institutions around the world see Twitter as integral to how they do business.
For me, the real take home message was something that most of the speakers were leaning towards, but that Stephen Fry (@Stephenfry) succintly and eloquently summarised: “Twitter is human-shaped, not business-shaped”. Although it might seem like an obvious statement, it is something that alot of marketers forget when they put together their “Twitter Strategies”. However, judging from the conference case studies, it is the people that remember Twitter’s ‘human shape’ that reap the dividends of communicating through this platform.
There were over 60 speakers, and unfortunately I cannot summarise everything that they said, but I will leave you with some soundbites from the conference, and a video filmed by Gabe Mac (@gabemac). I have also included links to some other online coverage about the event if you would like more information.
Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver) – Creator, #140conf
Babs Rangaiah (@Babs26) – VP Global Comms Planning, Unilever
Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) Writer/Author/Actor
Andrew Keen (@ajkeen) – Author
Jeffrey Hayzlett (@jeffreyhayzlett) – CMO, Kodak
Rachel Fellows (@kelloggsuk) Head of Corporate Comms, Kelloggs
Tony Mattson - Group Business Director UM London
Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) – President, New Marketing Labs
JP Rangaswami (@jobsworth) Cheif scientist, BT group
West Midlands police (@wmpolice)
More coverage from London’s #140conf-
Yes, it’s finally here, and what better way to start our blog than with news and photos from GASP! 2009.
Thankfully, the weather held out and, as the champagne flowed, the mariachis serenaded both clients and staff in the gardens of St. Paul’s Church – thanks Vicar!
We could go on, tell you what a fabulous night it was, how delicious the Mexican themed canapés were, and what mischief and shenanigans everyone got up to… But, quite simply, we think the photos speak for themselves…
For more photos from the night, click here, to go to our Flickr account!
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